


That Which Was Promised

by HomuraBakura



Series: Arc V Angst Week 2018 [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Canon, Angst, Developing Relationship, F/F, Injury, Tragedy, War, nursed back to health
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-06 19:52:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15892962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuraBakura/pseuds/HomuraBakura
Summary: This is not the glorious, honorable battle between that Selena had been promised.  But when she finds herself trapped in a collapsed building, only to be dug out by the XYZ Resistance, she may find a new promise of her own.





	That Which Was Promised

**Author's Note:**

> For Arc V Angst Week, Prompt 1: Heartland

This was not the glorious battle she had been promised.

Selena threw herself to the ground at the scream of the whistle.  Just in time before the metallic screech of the bird overhead, and then the pounding of the bombs that carpeted the ground.  When Selena looked up, coughing up black dust, she could hardly see for the soot in her eyelashes. Her ears rang, and she couldn’t hear the boots of her fellow soldiers that ran past her, pushing forward.

She blinked past the blur, coughing and pushing herself up to her knees.  A hand took her by the shoulder and hefted her to her feet. Although she could see Barrett’s lips moving as she realized he was the one who had lifted her up, she couldn’t hear him.  She squinted, and he grimaced. Before she could protest, he had her around the waist, and was pulling her back behind the barricade. She slapped at his hand weakly, but even at her strongest, saying no to Barrett was a difficult task.

He hefted her behind the barricade and set her firmly behind it.  Her hearing was starting to pop back now, and she could hear the distant rumble and boom of the bombs as the XYZ resistance was pushed back.  She blinked back dusty tears, coughing more.

“I’m sorry, Selena-sama.  We had no idea they’d pushed this far,” Barrett said.  “You weren’t supposed to be this close to the front.”

“This is where I wanted to be,” she said, but her attempt at sounded tough was ruined when she started to cough again.

She’d only been in Heartland for a few days.  It had been boring, quiet days, just as confined here as she had been at Academia, kept in the main control camp and as far away from the push as possible.  But then the Resistance had broken through, and the camp was in momentary chaos.

She turned herself around and squinted through the slats of the barricade.  It was hard to tell what was what — there were burning fires, crumbling buildings, shadows of people running against the flames, the tangle of screams and shrieks as the blur of monsters and Ancient Gear dogs barrelled over the battlefield.  Her stomach twisted. The Resistance was no true army. They attacked blindly, wildly, and randomly. When she caught glimpses of them in between the flashes of her comrades’ coats, she saw dirty-faced young people in ratty clothes, barely more than children.  This was no honorable combat, no glorious battle for a true utopia. This was a struggle of desperation. There enemies were no soldiers. They weren’t made for combat. This was a massacre more than it was anything else.

Her stomach lurched, and she put a hand over her mouth.

“Barrett,” she said.  “Barrett, why are we doing this?”

Barrett looked sharply at her, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of the chaos.  Her mind spun. She couldn’t figure it out. Maybe that last volley had really scrambled her head, but she couldn’t get her mind to wrap around this.  This was what she had wanted to be a part of? This indiscriminate slaughter of not true duelists, but desperate children trying to defend themselves? This was what she had begged the Professor day after day to be allowed to join?

“I’m going to send you back to Academia,” Barrett said, poking at his Duel Disk.  “This is too much for you. You need to retreat.”

Selena could hardly respond.  She only stared, hollow, at the battle outside.

Her gaze flickered.  She saw something moving, closer to the camp than the rest of the battle.  Her stomach squeezed.

Oh.  Oh fuck.

A literal child, no more than eight, bolted out from under a building, an even tinier child clinging to her hand.  They darted around plumes of fire and smoke, and into another building on the other side of the former road. But that building was —

One of the giant metal birds in the sky screeched as an Ancient Gear Golem flung it into the building.  Selena saw the two children flinch and scream as over their heads, the building started to crumble.

Selena wasn’t sure where the strength came from.  A moment ago, she’d been so weak that she couldn’t even stand.  And now, with her heart screaming in her ears so loud that she couldn’t even hear Barrett shouting at her, she was vaulting the barricade and running.

In slow motion, almost she could see the building collapsing.  See the debris raining down. She ran straight through a plume of fire but she didn’t even feel the singe.  Close — so close!

She launched herself through the open door.  Her arms smacked into the children, knocking them to the floor as her body collapsed on top of them.

And then the world flooded back into regular speed and the rain of stones crumbled over her head, and then everything was dark.

* * *

Ruri coughed.  Her whole body racked with every motion, keeping her on her knees.  That...what happened?

“Ruri!  Ruri, get up!  They’re retreating back to another camp!”

Ruri squinted through the haze.  She was surprised her ears were still working, as her brother got his arms under hers and hauled her back to her feet.

“What happened?” she gasped.

“A building collapsed right over the street — it’s blocked it off.  They’ve abandoned their camp and they’re going back to the old main base, at the city outskirts.  Kaito’s telling us not to pursue.”

The way he said it indicated that he was not happy about the order, but Ruri was simply dizzy with relief.  She didn’t think she could handle another push right now. Shun helped her sit down on a fallen slab of stone, and checked her over for wounds.

“I’m okay.  I just tripped in that explosion,” she said, trying to wave off his hands as he tried to rub some of the dirt off of her face.

Shun huffed, clearly not agreeing, but he let her go.

“Shun!  Ruri!”

Yuto ran over to them, red-faced and breathless.

“Kaito counted five missing in his squad,” Yuto gasped.  “Three from ours, and three more from Rio’s. Instead of pursuing, he wants us to see if we can find anyone, and then pull back for medical attention.”

“That collapse could have caught a few people,” Shun said, glaring at the avalanche of the fallen buildings.  “We should start digging, fast.”

Ruri stood up immediately.  A wash of dizziness rolled over her, and Shun reached back as though to have her sit back down.  She shrugged him off.

“I’ll start over here,” she said, turning on her Duel Disk.   “You start sweeping in a grid.”

Shun rolled his eyes, though she wasn’t sure if it was at her insistence on working, or her giving them orders.  But he and Yuto both nodded, and moved off at a specified distance to start making their way in a column through the wreckage.

Ruri felt numb as she summoned a trio of her Lyrical Luscinias.  The little bird girls immediately fluttered to the wreckage when she pointed, pushing rocks away with their wings and scrabbling through the debris with their claws.  She was afraid of what she would find inside. She’d seen so many horrible things in this war — things worse than people disappearing, screaming, into cards. She didn’t want to know what she was going to find in the rubble.

It was slow going.  The sun was high in the mostly cloudy sky as they slowly made their way to the other side.  There were others, around, keeping watch or also digging through the wreckage. As though at a distance, she heard a few people cry out in anguish at the things they found.  But she didn’t listen. She just kept methodically following her birds, digging through the stones with her own dirty, scuffed up hands, cracking her already ragged nails.

That was when she heard the cry.

It was thin, faint, muffled.  For a moment, she was sure she’d imagined it.  But then all three of her birds ruffled their feathers, their eyes widening.  All three of them moved at once, circling a few inches in the air over a larger pile.  One of them scratched at a rock with a talon, and then shied back, as though afraid of collapsing it.

A second muffled cry.  The sound of someone knocking from beneath the stone.  Ruri’s breath caught.

“Over here!” she shouted, waving her arms back and forth.  “Over here! Someone’s under here!”

Shun was just close enough to hear her, and he immediately turned towards her.  She turned her eyes to the rubble. She leaned down against it.

“Hello?” she called.  “Is someone in there?”

* * *

The adrenaline was wearing off.  Selena couldn’t get up, or even lift her head, but she knew the kids were still alive, because she could hear them both crying.  She tried to mumble something at them, but she was no good with kids, and she definitely didn’t have anything good to say about their situation.

Somehow, she’d ended up on her back.  Her entire bottom half was crushed underneath the collapsed building, and she couldn’t feel at least one of her legs.  The other one she could feel all too well. The rest of her was a buzz of pain, and soon enough, the adrenaline wouldn’t be enough to keep it off.  She’d probably black out once that happened, she reasoned. She had to think of something before then.

The kids were just outside her range of vision.  

“Miss?  Miss?” the older one asked.

Selena let out a grunt.  It was all she could manage, and even that was enough to set her lungs on fire.  She wondered if her ribs were broken. If she’d punctured a lung, she was done for.

“Help!” the younger child kept shouting.  “Help!”

Selena couldn’t have told him to stop even if she’d wanted to.  But she doubted it would do much good. They were pretty deep in there...and who exactly was going to come look for them?

 _Doesn’t matter how important I am to the Professor,_ Selena thought.   _Barrett probably saw me go in.  Probably assumes I’m dead. It’s policy not to go back for the fallen in case you lose more people trying to get the rest back._

Once upon a time, she’d thought that was a fair policy.  If you fell in battle, she’d always imagined it would be in honorable combat, and to have someone come to rescue you would deny your glory at best, or to cause the deaths of others at worst.  

But once upon a time, she’d also thought the invasion of XYZ was a righteous one.  One that didn’t involve small children getting buried alive in collapsing buildings.

“Help!” the little boy yelled again.  “We’re under here!”

The little girl gripped one of Selena’s free hands and cried.  Selena couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, and didn’t know what she would do if she could.  

_“Hello?  Is someone in there?”_

The voice was probably the most beautiful thing Selena had ever heard.  Oh god. Someone was out there. Someone had come for them.

She tried to clear her throat and only coughed, causing even more pain.  She squeezed the little girl’s hand.

“Hey,” she said, though her voice came out only in a faint whisper.  “You...kid...tell them...we’re here.”

The girl squeaked.  She jumped up, letting go of Selena’s hand.

“We’re here!” she shouted.  “We’re down here!”

They were remarkably lucky, Selena thought, trying to think fast, that they hadn’t been crushed.  Why hadn’t they?

Despite the pain, the adrenaline, the knowing that they were close to rescue, was kicking in again.  She twisted her head in spite of the pain and tried to look around. The hollow they’d gotten caught in — damn, they had been massive lucky.  It was just tall enough that the two small kids could stand up right, and right next to each other with Selena on the floor. It seemed like the entryway had collapsed just so, one of the pillars leaning down to create a sort of hollow that the rest of the debris had slid around.

But if their rescuers dug blindly, it could topple it all on top of them again.

“Kid,” Selena gasped.  “Tell them...that...they need to...dig...straight from the top.  Move...everything...to the side as they go. Slowly. Otherwise...it’ll...cave in.”

The little girl went pale with panic.  But instead of freezing up, she cupped her hands around her mouth.

“You have to dig straight down!” she shouted.  “Move things to the side as you go! Really slowly!  It might cave in!”

The little boy cried.  Selena didn’t have any more words.  She hoped to god that this was going to work.

* * *

Shun’s Raidraptors carefully airlifted rock after rock, one at a time, agonizingly slowly.  Ruri’s heart screamed in her chest. There were kids in there! They had to get them out!

The sun was close to setting by the time they uncovered a small hole.  There was a thing gasp and the sound of a child crying.

“Careful!” Kaito shouted, waving at the others waiting to start pulling people out.  “Watch the stability around the hole!”

A Resistance member balanced on a Cipher Wing carefully hovered towards the hole.  They leaned down inside, letting out a small hup as the child inside grabbed hold of his arms.  The Cipher Wing pulled back up, and the boy, no older than six, came up with him. A second Resistance member came over, held in the arms of their fairy monster, reaching in for the other child.  The nine-year-old girl cried as they moved her aside to solid ground, and Ruri let out a breath of relief. They’d done it!

“ _Oneesan_ is still inside!” the girl cried.  “She’s still stuck!”

Ruri’s heart plummeted.  Oh god. Someone was still in there.

The hole groaned dangerously.

“Wait!” Kaito shouted, holding his arms up to stop someone from bolting over.  “Wait! It’ll collapse!”

 _Even if we don’t move it’s going to cave,_ Ruri thought.

Cobalt Sparrow, at her side, suddenly ruffled its feathers.  As though reacting to her thoughts, it moved just as she did.  Shun let out a shout, Kaito yelled for her to stop, Yuto choked behind her.

Cobalt Sparrow dove into the hole and then back up, pressing its body against the ceiling.  Ruri dove inside.

It was dark and dusty and it took her a precious second to adjust.  The whole space was groaning and shifting now — there!

A girl, her hair half undone from its ponytail, lay trapped under the stone.  Ruri dove over to her, starting to push the rock aside.

“It...won’t...stay...up,” the girl gasped.  “If you...move it...it’ll...”

“Shut up!  Don’t talk!  I’m going to get you out of here!”

She pushed another pile of stone off of the girl and the whole place creaked.  Dust collapsed over her face and she had to paw it away. Sapphire Swallow appeared at her side then, shrieking and clawing at the rock that Ruri couldn’t claw away herself.  Cobalt Sparrow was letting out a cry of pain as it tried to keep the ceiling from caving.

The girl was free!  Ruri grabbed her under the shoulders, let Sapphire Swallow dig its claws into her own shoulders, and then her bird yanked her free.

The hole caved inches below the girl’s feet as they popped free.  There was a shout, someone else cheered, and then Sapphire Swallow let Ruri and the girl down.

The girl screamed when her legs touched the ground, and then her body went limp in Ruri’s arms.  Ruri’s heart leaped with panic — but she could feel the girl’s breath on her wrists, and realized that she was only unconscious.

As she slowly sank to her knees, letting the girl lay back against her, she felt Shun grab her from behind.

“Don’t you ever do that again!” he practically screamed.  

Ruri was too tired, too relieved to care.  The girl was alive, and the kids were safe.  It was...

Someone swore.  She heard Shun swear, too, and immediately, he grabbed her, bodily yanking her away from the girl.  The girl’s head fell off of Ruri’s lap, and she only just barely managed to squirm free of Shun’s grip to catch it before it struck the rock.

“What??  What are you doing?” she snapped.

“That’s not one of ours,” Yuto said, his voice shaking.

For the first time, Ruri looked at the girl she’d just rescued.

For the first time, as her heart turned icy, she noticed the torn, but very recognizable, bright red jacket.

“Fucking hell.”

“She’s Academia.”

“Someone card her, quick!”

Ruri couldn’t breathe well.  The girl looked so pained, even in her unconscious state.  One of her legs was at an awkward angle, and bruises and dirt coated her face.

“Everyone, calm down!  Calm the fuck down!” Kaito kept shouting, but the nervous clamor was running fast and hard now.

The little girl was starting to cry.  The person who had been comforting her before now held her tightly as she tried to squirm away, over to the unconscious girl.

“Don’t hurt her!” she said, but no one was listening.  “Don’t hurt her, please! _Oneesan_ saved us!”

“They’ll send reinforcements!”

“She’s probably got a tracker; it’ll lead them right to us!”

Shun was turning on his Duel Disk.  Ruri smacked his hand down.

“All of you, shut up!” she shrieked.

She was so exhausted that her voice peaked.  It was loud enough for everyone to stop talking and look at her.  Ruri wasn’t sure what to say now that she had their attention, though.  She swallowed. For a moment, she felt Yuto’s hand on hers, as though in a calming fashion.  He squeezed her hand lightly.

“You’re all...you’re all _awful_!” she said.  “This girl is injured!  She’s barely older than we are!  She saved those kids and she got nearly killed for it, and now you want to card her while she can’t defend herself?  How does that make any of us better than they are??”

Kaito looked very, very grim.  Shun looked away from her when she tried to catch his eye.  The other’s expressions were varied: a few looked down at their feet, some seemed to grow distant, others continued to look angry.

Ruri carefully gathered the girl back into her arms, holding her gently.

“This all started because someone didn’t treat us like humans,” she said.  “I’m not going to sit here and let anyone do the same thing to her. You’ll have to card me, first.”

That got a few pale looks.  Kaito’s eyes narrowed.

“Ruri, we don’t  have time for noble acts,” he said.  “Bringing her back means using valuable medical resources and low food supplies on caring for her.  We don’t have that luxury.”

“So you think the only viable option is murder?” Ruri shot back.  “She saved those kids! What if that had been Haruto?”

Kaito flinched, then, and his eyes took on a steely glint.

“Don’t go there, Ruri.”

“Or else what?” she said.  “Will you turn to Academia’s tactics too?  Will you card anyone who doesn’t do what you say?  Even your allies?”

Kaito’s hands rolled up into fists.  He looked very close to blowing up. Ruri didn’t drop his eyes, though.  She wouldn’t. She wouldn’t stand by and let cruelty be the law.

“Fine,” he snapped.  “But you’ll have to share your rations with her, because I’m not spreading us even thinner.”

“That’s bullshit!” Shun protested.

“Then _you_ can share your rations with her,” Kaito said, lips curling.  “I’m done with this. Do whatever you want.”

He turned on his heels and stormed off.  Ruri held the girl gently in her arms. There were tears rolling down her cheeks, but she could barely feel them.

“What’s happened to us?” she mumbled.

Yuto put his hands on top of hers.  But he didn’t have an answer.

* * *

Selena had dizzying dreams.  She dreamed of smoke, of collapsing rocks, of crying children, of snappish drill sergeants, of the cold, distant hands of Akaba Leo, patting her head on the rare occasion that he praised her.

She remembered waking up several times to nothing but endless pain.  She couldn’t feel a thing below her torso on good moments, but she could feel it all too clearly more often.  She remembered waking up screaming, but unable to flail unless she caused simply more pain.

She also remembered hands, soft, cool fingers that pressed against her forehead, that held cool rags to her cheeks, slipping soup between her lips and a soft voice urging her to swallow.  She would, and she’d drink the water brought to her lips, but she couldn’t see, and soon she’d be asleep again.

 _Who saved me?_ was all she could think when she wasn’t thinking about the pain or the dreams.   _Who...saved me?_

* * *

It had been three days, and the girl hadn’t woken fully.  Ruri had given her her own bedroll, sleeping on the floor beside her in case she woke up screaming in the night.  Ruri could never understand her incoherent words, tumbling from her lips like a stream over rocks, but sometimes she thought she heard apologies in there.  Who was the Academia girl apologizing to?

“She looks just like you,” Yuto said, sitting next to her.

Ruri bit her lip.  She hadn’t brought it up, and few others had come to check on the girl.  Yuto was the first to notice save herself, but once Ruri had wiped away the dirt and dust, had treated the cuts on her face and brushed through her tangled hair, the resemblance was uncanny.

“I know,” she whispered.  “I don’t understand it. It’s...unsettling.”

Ruri put another cloth on her forehead.  She was running a fever. Ruri wasn’t sure if any of her wounds were infected.  Her body had been crushed under the debris — she might never walk again. She might even be bleeding internally.  Ruri was no doctor, she had no way to tell. Frustrated tears bubbled to her eyes just thinking about it.

“What if she never wakes up?” she said, voice cracking.

Yuto didn’t answer.  His soft gray eyes had grown so hard over the course of all that had happened.  It hurt her to see. He’d always been so soft, so kind, so full of love and light.  It had all but been extinguished. He was colder now. More distant.

“You think I’m stupid, don’t you?” Ruri said.  “To take care of her.”

Yuto looked at her quickly.  For a moment, Ruri saw him again — the boy with the soft, sweet eyes, the boy who was so open and innocent despite his insistence of how cool he was.  The boy she’d thought she might be falling in love with, before the world had fallen apart and she’d forgotten how to fall in love.

Yuto put his hand on top of hers and squeezed lightly.

“No,” he said softly.  “I think you’re the bravest and smartest one of all of us.”

Ruri’s eyes filled with tears.  She let her head fall against his shoulder, and he didn’t move away.  He put his arm around her shoulders, and, silently, they watched the girl sleep. 

Ruri wondered what her eyes looked like.  She shared Ruri’s face, though her hair was shorter, and azure rather than obsidian violet.  Did she have the same eyes as Ruri, too? Would it be like staring into a mirror if the girl ever opened her eyes and looked right at her?

She hoped that some day she would know.

* * *

Selena woke for the first time without screaming in pain.  The pain was still there, of course, but it was more white noise than an alarm siren.

_Where am I?_

She stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling.  It was low and wooden, stained from use. Somewhere, she could smell soup, but it was a thin, watery scent.  There were soft voices in another room, and distantly, the sound of feet and many people.

Selena tried her fingers.  They opened and closed without effort and without pain.  She moved her arms slowly against the floor. Her arms didn’t hurt, but the movement stretched out her spine and reminded her of the pain from her waist down.

Gritting her teeth, Selena attempted to move her legs.

White hot fiery pain shot through her, up her spine and all the way up to her brain.  For a moment, she whited out. When she came to, a scream was ripping out of her throat.

She heard a swear, the clatter of feet, and a paper door sliding open with a snap.

“Sh, sh, sh, it’s okay.  I’m sorry, I don’t have any medicine, but just breathe.  In and out with me, okay? I’ll count. One, out. Two, out...”

Selena grasped for the voice.  She had a feeling it was the first one she’d heard in a long time.  She breathed as the girl instructed. Slowly, the pain faded back to a distant buzz again, and her vision cleared.

She sucked in a breath — was that a mirror above her?

The girl leaned closer, then, and her long hair slid over her shoulders.  Selena blinked, and she realized it was no mirror. But it could have been a twin, or a sister she’d never known about.  

After the initial shock, she started to notice dissimilarities — this girl had slightly smoother, sharper cheeks, and her eyelashes were thicker.  Her bangs were thicker and sideswept, and a dark obsidian violet. Her eyes were a soft magenta, like the color of roses. She looked still very like Selena, but the passing eeriness of the sensation passed after a beat.

“Who are you?” Selena gasped.  Her voice cracked. Her throat was so dry...

The girl made a soothing sh sound, and then leaned out of sight for a moment.  When she returned, she put her hand behind Selena’s head, helping her tilt her head up.  A glass of water came to her lips. Selena could not remember ever being so thirsty. She drank until the glass was empty, and the girl put the glass aside, setting her head back down.

“How are you feeling?” the girl asked.

Selena’s mind was slowly chugging back to life, and she was remembering her training for field injuries.  She did a quick body scan to take in what was hurting.

“Everything from my waist down hurts,” Selena said, grunting.  “My head is mostly clear, but I can’t move my legs without hurting.  I can move my toes though. I think the pain is centered in my hips. Something might be cracked.”

The girl nodded.

“You got crushed under the building when it fell,” she said.  “I wouldn’t be surprised. Unfortunately...we don’t have any doctors, so we can’t be sure.”

Selena was trying to remember exactly how she’d gotten here, and figure out where she was.  Suddenly, something dawned on her. A panic shot through her.

“The kids!” she said.  “There were kids! What happened to them?”

She couldn’t sit up, and when she tired to move, more pain wracked her body, pinning her to the floor.  The girl put a cool hand to her forehead, calming her.

“They’re fine,” she said soothingly.  “They mostly got scratches. The older girl told me that you pushed them.  You were very lucky — you pushed them right into the most structurally safe part of the building, and they ended up in a safe bubble.”

Selena’s heart began to slow.  Oh thank god...

Her eyes fluttered with the relief, and she just laid there for a moment, sharply aware of the girl’s cool, soft hand.  

Then the second thing occurred to her — this was not an Academia field tent.

That meant she was with the XYZ resistance.

Her eyes opened, and she stared at the girl above her.

“Why did you save me?” she said.  “You’re XYZ, aren’t you?”

The girl’s fingers twitched against Selena’s forehead.  Selena was shocked to see the girl’s eyes immediately flood with tears.

“Because I couldn’t just leave you,” she whispered.

* * *

“Do you...have my cards?” the girl mumbled, looking away.

“They’re safe,” Ruri said.  She pulled the deck out of her pocket, setting it on the ground beside the girl’s head.  The girl turned towards it, and her eyes flooded with relief. She reached for the cards and held them over her eyes, flipping through them.  Convinced that they were all accounted for, she closed her eyes and sighed, hugging them to her chest.

“I’m afraid we...discarded your Duel Disk, though,” Ruri said.

“Makes sense,” the girl said, not sounding particularly upset.

Ruri sat awkwardly for a moment.

“Do you might if I check you over?” she said.  “Now that you’re awake, it might be easier to isolate what you’ve broken.”

The girl looked at her, lips parting.  Then she shrugged.

“Go for it,” she mumbled.

Ruri pulled the blanket back from the girl’s body.  The girl’s clothes were pretty torn up by all the rocks, and it was a little inappropriate.  Hence the blanket. The girl blushed, though, as Ruri began to gently push aside her skirt to see the damage done to her legs.

“What’s your name?” the girl blurted suddenly.

Ruri looked up at her.  She had such green eyes, Ruri thought.  Now that she was awake, the similarity between them was less unsettling.  There was a difference in the way her face twitched and the way her brows drew together.  She felt more real, now.

“I’m Ruri,” she said.  “Kurosaki Ruri.”

Ruri smiled gently.  The girl looked so confused, and so lost.  The first thing she’d asked about when she woke up had been those children.  She seemed a surprisingly kind girl, for being with Academia.

“What’s your name?”

The girl’s eyes slid aside.

“Selena,” she said.

Ruri waited to see if there would be a surname, and then Selena’s cheeks flushed.

“Just Selena.”

Oh.  Ruri looked away.  She turned her attention back to Selena’s legs.

“I think this one is broken,” she said.  “Tell me when it hurts to touch.”

Selena sucked in a hissing breath when her fingers dug around her knee.

“Dislocated, maybe,” Ruri said.  “How about this one?”

Selena indicated that her thigh hurt on the other leg.  Her hips were definitely a source of pain as well.

“I don’t know that I can do much,” Ruri said nervously.  “I can maybe set your leg, but...I might do more harm than good.”

“Why are you doing this?”

That question again.  Ruri looked up and met Selena’s eyes.  It was an awkward position, with her lying down and trying to look up at her down near her legs.

“I’m your enemy,” Selena said.  “I...I participated in...hurting all of you.”

Her voice cracked.  There was a childish tremble in her voice, and Ruri thought that she might cry.  Ruri reached back up, putting her hand on Selena’s forehead again.

“Because I couldn’t just leave someone to die,” she said.  “Even if they’re an enemy.”

The girl stared at her with wide, disbelieving eyes.  Ruri rose, then.

“I’m going to bring you some food,” she said.  “I’ll see if any of our makeshift medics can help out...”

What she didn’t say out loud was she wondered if any of them would be willing to help Selena.  But she pushed the thought aside.

“Rest, okay?” she said.  “I’ll be back.”

There were a thousand unspoken questions in Selena’s eyes, but she didn’t voice a single one.

* * *

“She’s awake?”

Selena looked over with surprise.  She was the only one tucked into this tiny, crumbling side room of the resistance base, and she hadn’t seen anyone except Ruri since she’d woken up.

The boy in the doorway seemed...familiar, somehow, but Selena couldn’t place him.  He was fair skinned, with his dark black and purple hair spiked and swooped over his head.  He stared at her impassively with his soft gray eyes.

“Yuto,” Ruri greeted him.  “This is Selena.”

He didn’t greet Selena, he only looked.  Selena felt like she was being appraised.  Had she not been pinned to the floor, she would have squirmed in discomfort.  Or punched him. One or the other.

Ruri set aside the empty bowl of soup she’d been feeding Selena.  She took the cool rag off of Selena’s hips and dunked it in the bucket again, getting it cool once more.  It was all they could do in the way of pain relief, and it was small comfort.

“I’m going to put this away,” Ruri said, picking up the soup bowl.  “Yuto? Will you come with me?”

“I’ll wait for you,” Yuto said.

Ruri looked at him with an expression that Selena couldn’t read.  But she pressed her lips together, and swept away without another word.

Yuto stayed in the doorway for a while, just staring at Selena.  Selena was starting to get annoyed.

“If you’ve got a problem,” she said.  “You can come out and say it.”

Yuto’s lips pressed together.  Then he walked into the room, and for a single, panicked moment, Selena thought he might attack her.

But he only sat down on his knees beside her, sitting over her.  They sat in another long, uncomfortable silence.

“I’m only going to ask this once,” he said finally, before she could snap at him again.  “What do you plan to do if you recover?”

Selena stared at him, thrown aback by the question.  Yuto pressed further.

“Will you contact your comrades?  Will you tell them where we are?” he said.  His eyes narrowed. “Will you card us?”

“I don’t have my Duel Disk,” Selena pointed out.

Yuto’s eyes narrowed even further, and his face darkened.

“Answer the question,” he said.

Selena could not remember ever feeling so cornered before.  Even the teachers at Academia had never frightened her so much, because then, she’d always trusted in her abilities to beat them.  Right now, however, she was entirely helpless.

“I’d never be so dishonorable as to turn on the people who saved my life, even though it would have been easier to let me die,” she said, not dropping his gaze.

Yuto stared at her for a very long moment.  Selena wondered how long she’d have to glare back at him.  Finally, he sighed, and closed his eyes. He put his hands on his knees.

“I’ll hold you to that promise,” he said.  “If you hurt Ruri...I won’t forgive you.”

“Why the hell would I hurt _her_ of all people?”

Then she blinked.

“Is she like...your girlfriend?  Is this a boyfriend thing?”

Yuto’s face went immediately beet red.  It immediately ruined the whole menacing vibe he’d been going for.

“That’s not it!!” he spluttered.

“Oh.  So not yet, is what you’re saying.”

“Shut up!  Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say!”

He scrambled to his feet and to the door.  Selena watched him go, feeling a little more confused than she had been before.

Ruri reappeared, looking off in the direction Yuto had bolted.  She frowned, coming back inside.

“Did you say something weird to Yuto?” she asked.

Selena grimaced.

“I have no idea, honestly.”

* * *

Ruri sat beside Selena, dozing slightly.  There was little to do — she hadn’t been assigned to any patrols or supply trips lately, and her shift in the mess hall was over.  She stayed near Selena, worried that someone might decide to come and card her while she was helpless if Ruri wasn’t watching over her.

Selena stared at the ceiling.  She wasn’t sleeping right now, and it must be boring, sitting here all the time, unable to move.

“Selena?” Ruri asked quietly.

Selena’s eyes slid to her.

“Do you...have anyone waiting for you back home?  Is anyone worried about you?”

Selena’s lips parted.  For a moment, she looked...very small.  Very like a lost child. She looked back at the ceiling.

“I shouldn’t have asked,” Ruri started, but then Selena started talking.

“No,” she said.  “At least, maybe not.  I don’t know.”

Ruri blinked.

“How can you not know?”

Selena’s hands curled up into fists on either side of her, and she kept staring at the ceiling.

“When I was three, my parents died,” she said.  “I don’t know how. Or maybe they just abandoned me.  I’m not sure. But I ended up at Academia. There was a whole wing of kids like me.  Kids who didn’t have parents to go home to. It was like a boarding daycare.”

Ruri felt her heart tightening as Selena talked.

“When I was seven, I met the Professor,” Selena said, and this time, Ruri felt an icy hand grasp at her heart.  She knew that name. Any Academia soldier they’d managed to question had said that the Professor was their leader, the one who controlled everything.

Ruri shifted uneasily, folded her hands into her lap.

“And what happened then?” she asked evenly.

Selena snorted softly.  She looked far away.

“He looked at me like he’d seen a ghost,” Selena said, softly.  “I...I don’t remember it too well. I remember...he hugged me. And I didn’t know why.”

Selena lifted up one hand towards the ceiling, as though grasping for something she couldn’t reach.

“That was the last time he showed me any real affection, though.”

Ruri felt her nerves settling again.  Selena sounded...so sad. The girl let her hand fall back down, her arm draped over her eyes.

“Selena?” Ruri said softly.

“I’ve never really talked to anyone like this before,” Selena mumbled.  “The Professor kept me away from everyone. I stayed in one small room, all by myself.  I’d stare out the windows at the ocean and watch the other kids go to class.”

“Why would he do that?” Ruri said.

“I don’t know.  He told me I was special.  That I needed to be protected.  He never told me why. And he’d always... _look_ at me...with this goddamn...unreadable expression.  So distant. I just...I wanted him to be proud of me.”

Selena’s lips tightened, and Ruri thought she saw a tear escape from under her arm.

“God.  Look at me.  Spilling my whole damn soul to a stranger.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Ruri reached out, slowly at first, and then gently put her hand on Selena’s elbow.

“It’s all right,” she said softly.  “You’re not alone, Selena.”

Selena let her arm slip from her eyes, and she stared at Ruri.

“We can’t be friends,” she whispered.  “It’s not possible. Not after what’s happened.”

Ruri squeezed Selena’s elbow.  Her eyes blurred with tears.

“I can’t believe in a world like that,” she whispered.  “It’s too cruel to imagine.”

* * *

The damage to Selena’s hips must have been less dire than they thought, or Selena was a miracle, because after another week or so, Selena was able to sit up with help.  It was a goddamn miracle to be able to eat without being spoon fed with someone propping up her head, and Selena almost cried. She missed running, missed jumping and moving and spinning in circles.  Even her room in Academia had not felt so much a prison as her body felt now.

She was attempting to stretch her arms at the very least when she heard the soft whispers and hisses just outside the door.  She looked up — Ruri wasn’t around, she had some kind of patrol to go on. Who was out there?

“Hello?” she called.

There was a faint squeak, a swear, and then the fumble of legs.

A girl appeared in the doorway then, flushed and panting.  She was younger than Selena, maybe about twelve or thirteen, with bobbed violet hair and glasses.  A red-faced boy about her age appeared next to her, his spiky red hair mussed as though he’d been wrestling.

“Sayaka, no,” he said.  “You shouldn’t — ”

“H-hi,” the girl, who must be Sayaka, said, her eyes fixed on Selena instead of the boy.

Selena blinked.

“Um...hi?” she said.  “Who are you?”

Sayaka flushed even deeper, and then the boy was pushing her back behind him, looking at her angrily.  Selena had no idea what to make of this situation.

“Can I help you?” she said.

“You can get your stupid Academia ass out of here,” the boy said.

Sayaka smacked him on the shoulder and he winced.

“Allen!” she said indignantly.  She pushed him aside. “I’m so sorry.  I just wanted to come...talk to you.”

“It’s stupid!  You should stay away from her,” the boy, Allen said.

“I thought, well, you must be really lonely, far away from everyone you know,” the girl pressed on.  “A-and...and Ruri-san says you’re all right, and we _trust_ Ruri-san, don’t we, Allen?”

Allen glared at her, but Sayaka was too busy looking at Selena.  Selena was thoroughly taken aback by now. She could only stare for a few moments.  Then she shook her head.

“You XYZ kids are a lot nicer than I’d expect,” she said.  “Why are you trying to be so nice to me?”

“That’s what I said,” Allen grumbled.

Sayaka tightened her hands on her chest, looking teary-eyed.

“You’re human too, aren’t you?” she said.  “You have feelings too, right?”

Selena felt an awful stab of heartbreak in her chest.  Why was she looking at her with such wide, kind eyes? Selena didn’t deserve that.  

Her eyes filled up with tears, and she quickly ducked her head away beneath her bangs.  This was ridiculous. She was their enemy, and they were all being too kind. No wonder Academia had wiped them out so easily.  But...even her own classmates at Academia had never said such a thing to her. She couldn’t remember anyone ever asking how she was feeling.

She cursed the tears that rolled down her cheeks.

“Fuck,” she said.  “What’s wrong with all you XYZ people?”

* * *

Ruri was shocked to walk back in and find Sayaka and Allen sitting around Selena.  Sayaka looked up with wide eyes — between her and Selena, she’d set up a game of Hanafuda with her beat up tiles.  Selena was growling slightly, glaring at the field and her hand. Allen scowled, sitting next to Sayaka with his head in his hand, glowering at Selena.

Ruri smiled.

“Having fun?” she said.

“This game is bullshit,” Selena said.  “There are too many combinations. How do you remember which sets to make?”

“You’re getting better, Selena-san,” Sayaka said reassuringly.

“Aren’t you a duelist?” Allen sneered.  “You should know how to memorize card combos.”

“That’s different!  I have _one_ deck and it’s easy to use because it’s mine!”

Ruri couldn’t help but laugh a little as Selena and Allen began to bicker.  Selena was getting more animated lately. It was pulling a weight off of Ruri’s chest.

“Gah!  I lost again!”

Selena threw her cards on the floor and crossed her arms, sulking.  It was...actually kind of nice. It was a new side to her, a very real, relaxed side, that Ruri hadn’t seen before.  She seemed more and more real every day.

“You’ll get it next time, Selena-san,” Sayaka said.

Ruri sat down next to them.

“Want to play me?” she said.  “I promise I’m much worse at this than Sayaka.”

Selena glanced at her.  There was still something guarded in her expression.  She looked...nervous. Worried. She had a right to feel that way, Ruri supposed.  But she felt like...they were understanding each other more. And she wanted to keep understanding her.

“Fine,” Selena said.  “But Sayaka-san gets to be my partner and tell me what to do.”

“O-Oh...um...okay!” Sayaka said.

Ruri laughed.

“Okay, I get Allen then,” she said, taking the cards and shuffling.  “Allen, stop scowling and join us.”

Allen protested and spluttered, but it was only a matter of time before he caved, and joined the game.  Ruri smiled behind her cards while Selena showed her own hand to Sayaka, looking adorably confused by the cards.

The world was falling apart, she thought.  But there was still something to smile about.

* * *

“Ruri,” Selena said.  “Will you tell me more about...this city?”

Ruri startled.  She must have been dozing, Selena thought.  She waited nervously for Ruri to respond, staring at her through the dark.  Ruri’s face was only a foot or so away from hers, sleeping on the floor beside her.

Ruri blinked sleepily, squinted.

“What do you mean?” Ruri said.

“I don’t know anything about Heartland,” Selena said softly.  “They didn’t tell us anything. I...I want to know. About this place.  About you.”

Ruri’s lips parted.  After a beat, she rolled over onto her back, looking up at the ceiling.

“Heartland is...was...colorful,” she said, her voice going distant.  “There were so many lights. It was a big tourist city. We had an amusement park in the center that was also called Heartland.”

“That’s confusing,” Selena said.

Ruri laughed.  Selena liked her laugh.  It was sweet and light, and unlike any laughter she’d ever heard before.  Actually, had she _ever_ heard someone laugh before, except at someone?

“It was a little confusing,” Ruri said.  “But...I loved this city. There were trees everywhere, big, beautiful trees that lined the streets.  They were strung up with lights at Christmastime. Shun and Yuto liked to throw toilet paper in them during Halloween.”

Ruri’s voice sounded thin and choked now.  But Selena didn’t want her to stop, and she didn’t.

“Every summer, there was a light festival, and the city was the prettiest it could be,” she said.  “All of the stores strung themselves with lights. There were stalls of games and food that filled up the amusement park, and we’d go in our yukata and try to get goldfish from the stand.  And then, the fireworks...oh, god, the fireworks. They were so beautiful — they made shapes, and words, and pictures of Duel Monsters.”

Selena stared up into the dark and tried to imagine it.  She could hardly imagine something so beautiful in her whole life.  The darkness blurred, and she realized that it was because she was crying.

She heard a soft sob in the dark, and knew that Ruri was crying too.

On instinct, an instinct Selena never knew she’d had, she groped through the dark.  Her hand found Ruri’s, and she gripped it. She heard Ruri inhale with surprise.

“I’m sorry,” Selena said.  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Why did you come here?” Ruri cried softly.  “Why did you and Academia come here? Why did you attack us?  We didn’t do anything wrong.”

Selena had no idea if Ruri wanted an answer.

“They never really told us,” she gasped, her throat tight.  “They just said we had to. That we were going to build a utopia.  They told us we’d only be fighting soldiers. They never told us it would be like this.”

Ruri sobbed again.  Selena thought she should maybe let go of Ruri’s hand.  That this wasn’t something she had the right to comfort her for.  But she couldn’t bring herself to let go.

When she tried, Ruri grabbed her back, not letting her leave.

“If you had a second chance, what would you do?” she whispered.

Selena swallowed back a sob.

“There’s no second chances in this world,” she said. “Only what we’re going to do next.”

Ruri’s hand was cool in hers.

“Then what are you going to do next?” she whispered.

Selena stared through the darkness at Ruri, and in the faintest bit of light, she saw her eyes glimmer.  Selena squeezed her hand.

“I’m going to help you take your city back,” she said.  “I want to see the lights come back, Ruri.”

Ruri’s eyes flooded, and Selena’s did too.  Ruri curled up closer to Selena, her face inches from Selena’s, still holding her hand.  Selena let her cry.

Selena cried too.

More than she ever had in her life.

* * *

With a makeshift pair of crutches, Selena could balance herself on her feet.  Ruri could see the tears fill her eyes when she was able to stand up, and she put a hand on her shoulder to steady her.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Standing up has never felt so good,” Selena gasped.

She could only stand for a few minutes at a time before she was tired and in pain again.  Ruri helped her sit back down after Selena insisted on standing for as long as she could.

“I need to be back in shape,” she insisted.  “So I can help you guys.”

“You won’t do yourself any good pushing it,” Ruri said.

Kaito was sending Ruri on more missions lately.  He was getting really on edge lately. Academia squads had been pushing closer and closer to their base in the Clover School, and there were rumors that Spade had fallen — they hadn’t heard from them in a while, and Academia patrols were thick in that direction.

She chafed at every moment she wasn’t watching over Selena.  With the increased tension in the base, more and more people were getting antsy about Selena being there with the increased Academia pressure.  Sayaka, Allen, and Yuto could check in on her when they could, but Ruri hated being away. What if someone decided to card her while she was alone, and unable to defend herself?

Every time she got back to base, she’d half run down the halls until she got back to the small side room where Selena stayed, and every time, her heart would only slow once she saw Selena looking up at her from a game of Hanafuda with Sayaka, or an awkward chat with Yuto.

She was nearly to the door this time when she heard a new voice in the room with Selena.  Her blood halted in its tracks as she recognized the voice. Shun.

He had hardly spoken to her since she’d rescued Selena — busy on missions, or avoiding her, she wasn’t sure.  She had no idea what he thought of her decision. He was so full of anger and rage at Academia — what would he do to Selena?

“I’m not going to turn on you.”

“That’s easy enough to say to me, but words are fucking cheap.  Are you broadcasting to your comrades? Are you bugged?”

“If I was, I wouldn’t know about it.  You want me to fucking strip for you right now?”

Ruri swung into the room, and her arrival caused both Shun and Selena to look at her.  Shun’s face was dark, and Selena looked a little red, whether from anger or something else, Ruri couldn’t be sure.  But Shun towered over Selena, where she was stuck on the floor, and Ruri felt a little panicked at what her brother might decide to do.

She quickly moved into the room, grabbing Shun’s arm.

“Niisan, please, leave her alone,” she said.

Shun yanked his arm from her grip, scowling.

“Academia’s getting closer every day, and we can’t throw them off,” he snarled.  “You don’t think she has something to do with it?”

“She can’t do anything from where she is, Shun!  Besides, she doesn’t want to fight us anymore!”

“I can’t believe you’re listening to her,” he said.  “Ruri — you’re too soft for this.”

There was a hint of pity in his voice when it snapped, and that hurt more than anything.  Ruri grabbed for him again, but Shun moved out of her reach, looming further over Selena. Selena glared up at him with all of the confidence of a tiny dog, as though she had no fear for him despite her position.

“How can we trust you?” he said.  “How can you prove that we can trust you?”

“You’re the one who has to do the trusting, so you tell me,” Selena snapped back.

“Niisan,” Ruri begged, but Shun ignored her, pushing her back when she tried to grab him.

He leaned down and got his face up in Selena’s, but Selena refused to flinch back, glaring right back at him.

“My sister is putting her life on the line for you,” he said.  “She’s cutting her own damn rations just to feed you. How do I know you’re not going to hurt her?  Take advantage of her?”

“I’m not!” Selena said.  “I won’t!”

“You can’t prove that!” Shun roared back.  Ruri grabbed at his coat and tried to yank him back, but her hands popped right off of the coat and she went tumbling down onto her butt.

“Ruri saved my life!” Selena screamed.  “And I don’t care if you don’t believe me!  But so help me _god_ , if anything was ever going to hurt her, I swear to god that _I would die first!_ ”

She leaned up into Shun’s face as far as she could go, despite wincing in pain, her words spitting into Shun’s face.  Shun actually leaned back with widening eyes at the strength in Selena’s voice.

Selena heaved in heavy, thick breaths, faint tears in the corners of her eyes.  For a long, long moment, Shun stared at her. Then he grunted.

“Then I will hold you to that promise,” he said.

He turned, and he stormed out of the room, coattails flapping after him.

“Fuck you too,” Selena said to his back, but her voice was quiet this time.  She flushed when she looked at Ruri. “Sorry. Shouldn’t say that to your brother.”

Ruri shook her head.

“He’s....not the nicest person sometimes.”

Selena’s fists curled up in her lap, and she stared at the floor.

“But he cares about you,” she whispered.  “And...and I get it. He doesn’t have to trust me.”

Ruri twisted onto her knees and crawled over to Selena.  She took Selena’s hands in hers, cupping her fist in both her hands.

“But I trust you,” she said.  “And that should be enough for him.  He should trust me.”

Selena looked up at her with shiny, teary eyes.  She put her own hand on top of Ruri’s, squeezing.

“I meant it,” she said, her voice rough and thick with tears.  “When I said that I would die before I let you get hurt.”

She looked so young.  It reminded Ruri of how much of a child she herself still was.  They were only children, trapped in this war started by adults, adults who never deigned to tell them what was happening or why they were fighting.

“I don’t want you to do that,” Ruri said.  “I want you to live.”

Selena shook her head.

“I’m not going to take what you did for me for granted,” she said.  “I promise, Ruri. I’m not going to abandon you, or anyone here. I’m going to fight for you.  I’m — I’m going to make up for how stupid I was. I’m going to — ”

It was so soft, so slow, like a flower unfolding in her chest.  It was warm and soft and cool all at once. She barely heard Selena’s words anymore, she only saw her lips moving.  Only saw the tears in her eyes as Ruri came close enough to see them like tiny clear pearls.

Selena’s lips were warm and slack when Ruri touched hers to them.  Selena’s hands clenched against hers in her lap. But then, nervously, tentatively, she kissed back.  Her hand slid up Ruri’s shoulder, and Ruri was wrapping her arms around Selena’s, and her hair was dirty and matted but it still felt so soft somehow to press her fingers into and hold against the back of her head.

They broke apart with tangled breaths and cluttered tears, eyes blinking out of the haze of the kiss.  Selena’s cheeks were warm and red, and Ruri couldn’t help but cup her cheek with one hand, run her thumb over the girl’s scarred cheek.

The world was falling apart, but it seemed Ruri _hadn’t_ forgotten how to fall in love after all.

* * *

Selena slept in fits.  She couldn’t stop thinking about Ruri’s lips on hers.  She’d never kissed anyone before. She’d never even thought about it.  She still felt warm in every place that Ruri’s hands had touched her, across her shoulders, the back of her head.  Tingles ran down her spine if she thought too hard about it. Ruri slept only a few inches from her, and her breaths were so light and soft and Selena thought she could listen to that sound forever.  Was this weird? Was this _weird_?  They looked so alike.  Was this like...kissing your sister?  It didn’t feel like it, but Selena couldn’t stop her mind from running in constant circles.

Her hand was in Ruri’s even as they slept, though Ruri’s fingers were slack in sleep.  Selena didn’t let go anyway. She looked up at the ceiling, felt Ruri’s fingers in hers, and listened to her breathing.

How had she gotten here, she thought?  She could never have imagined she’d be here, under the roof of the XYZ resistance, holding hands with an XYZ girl.  She thought of a series of faces — Sayaka, coming to play Hanafuda with her. Allen sticking his tongue out at her, arguing with her about the stupidest things.  Yuto making awkward small talk with her, clearly trying to connect. Even Shun, his harsh eyes glowering into hers, daring her to be someone that could be trusted.

And of course, Ruri.  The girl who’s hand she held now, the girl who she dreamed of kissing even now.

 _How did I make it here?_ she thought again.  Tears bubbled to her eyes.   _How did I start thinking of this place as home?_

She was a prisoner in her own body, and couldn’t move without pain.  She might never walk again. She’d probably never see Academia again, either, or any of the places she’d ever known.

But it suddenly didn’t matter.  None of it. Not as long as she got to stay here forever, with these people.  With this _family_.

She heard a footstep in the hall.  Immediately, she lifted her head, ears alert.  It was full dark in the complex, and the only people who should be awake would be the guards — and they didn’t patrol this part of the building, it was deep enough in that it should be safe.  Who was out there?

She heard a low voice, and a second one replying.  Selena lay as still and quiet as she could. She tightened her grip on Ruri’s hand, and Ruri stirred.

The footsteps were getting closer.  Selena sat up, twinging with the pain.  She reached for Ruri’s shoulder — then thought better of it, and took the blanket off of her legs and tossed it over Ruri, hoping she’d look like a blanket pile.  

A light came down the hall.  The voices got closer.

“Which one?”

“That one.  That’s where...well, you’ll see.”

The light swung closer.  Selena’s heart rose in her throat.

The light came around the corner.  It was the screen of a Duel Disk, she saw now, and from the bottom light, the boy’s face was eerily illuminated.

For one, disorienting moment, she thought she was looking at Yuto.  But his silhouette was wrong, he was wearing the wrong shaped jacket, and his hair was shaped wrong.

And then he smiled, and Selena knew there was no way it was Yuto.  Yuto would never smile so sadistically.

“Ah!” the boy said, stepping into the room.  “There you are, Ruri dear.”

He thought she was Ruri.  She tensed, moving slightly in front of Ruri’s covered form to hide her.

“Who are you?  What do you want?”

The boy stepped closer, smiling.

“You can call me Yuuri, dearest,” he said.  “And I’m here to take you with me.”

Selena stiffened up.  Ruri’s Duel Disk was behind her.  Could she reach back for it? Grab it?

“Where do you want to take me?”

“To see the Professor, of course!  He’s anxious to see you, you see.”

Selena’s blood ran cold.  The Professor...wanted...Ruri?

_Ruri looks like me.  This boy from Academia looks like Yuto.  The Professor always told me that I was...“special.”  What does he want Ruri and me?_

“What if I don’t want to go?” Selena asked.

Yuuri laughed.

“It wasn’t a request,” he said.

Ruri was stirring beneath her blanket, and despite Selena’s best efforts, Yuuri’s eyes flickered towards the movement.

“Selena?  What’s going on?” Ruri mumbled.

Yuuri’s eyes widened.  Selena grabbed Ruri’s Duel Disk, snatching it away from her and fumbling to get it on her arm.

Yuuri was faster.  He flipped a card onto his Disk in the same motion as turning it on, and from the darkness, a tangle of rough vines exploded, grabbing Selena’s arms and yanking them over her head.  She yelled. Pain wracked her body as she squirmed and struggled against her bonds, but she couldn’t get her hands down, much less activate the Duel Disk!

Her yell woke Ruri, though, and Ruri immediately surged up, the blanket falling off of her.  She saw the situation, and reached to grab the Duel Disk back from Selena’s struggling hands.  Yuuri activated another card, and Ruri screamed as she was flung back against the wall.

“Oh my!” Yuuri said. “What a lovely surprise!  So this is what Dennis meant!”

He laughed again, throwing his head back.

“Oh dear, but the Professor will be so pleased,” he purred.  “You’ve been missing for so long, Selena dear! They’ve been ever so worried.”

“Let me go, you bastard!  Leave Ruri alone!” Selena screamed.  She knew Yuuri wouldn’t listen, but she was hoping that if she was loud enough, she’d attract back up.

She was right.  She heard footsteps pounding down the halls, a few shouts and cries.  Yuuri’s eyes flickered over his shoulder. Then he looked at Selena, and the smile that stretched over his face made Selena feel like she’d turned to ice.

“So,” he said softly.  “You’ve turned traitor on us, haven’t you, Selena dear?”

“Shut up!” Selena shouted.  “Let me go!”

Yuuri tutted softly, wagging a finger.

“You care about them, don’t you?  How very sweet of you.”

He smiled, leaning down so that he was inches from her face.

“How would you like to watch me card all of them, one by one?” he said softly.  “It’s a bottleneck in here. It would be so easy.”

Selena felt her face drain of all heat.  She stopped struggling immediately. Behind her, she heard Ruri coughing, trying to get air back in her lungs after her impact.

“I’ll come quietly,” she begged.  “Just leave them alone. Leave Ruri here.”

“No can do on the last bit, unfortunately,” Yuuri said.  “You’ll have to talk to the Professor about that.”

Selena’s eyes filled with tears.  She was wracked with pain, bound, and there was nothing she could do.  She heard Ruri struggling and yelling when Yuuri walked around Selena and grabbed her by the wrists, dragging her back to Selena.

A blinding flash of violet light filled the room just as the first Resistance members skidded to the door.  Selena and Ruri screamed, blinded, and then Selena felt Yuuri’s hand in her hair.

When the light faded, she was on a cold marble floor in a room she had never wanted to see again.

“I’m back, Professor,” Yuuri said cheerily, and Selena flinched.  She looked up slowly, and found a pair of familiar eyes looming far above her.  “And I’ve brought an extra surprise!”

* * *

Ruri coughed and choked, trying to stay coherent.  There had been the boy, and Selena, screaming, and then the impact and the light, and — where were they?  Who was talking?

Her blood ran cold.  Had she just heard.... _Professor?_

“Professor!” Selena shouted.  “Let Ruri go!!”

Ruri felt panic seize her.  Her whole body seized up, froze, and she couldn’t breathe.  She managed to lift her eyes, enough to see what was before her.  A massive, ostentatious room of marble, with soaring pillars to either side of them spread before her.  At the top of an imposing series of stairs stood a single large chair, like a throne. And standing in front of it was a man.

He was tall, broad, and tanned.  His head was bald, save for a strange metal piece that seemed built into his forehead.  And his eyes were deepset...cold...unfeeling. She could feel them staring at her as though they were a living touch, and she couldn’t breathe.

Then his eyes moved over, and Ruri gasped as though some spell had been broken.

She heard Selena cry out with pain, and shot a look.  Selena had tried to fling herself forward, towards the man — the Professor.  Her eyes were wide and wild, desperate tears in the corners of her eyes.

“Professor, please!  You have to let Ruri go.  You have to stop the invasion.  Please!”

The Professor stared at her impassively.  Some expression Ruri could not understand passed over his face — he looked...tired?

“Obelisk Force, take Selena to the medical ward,” he said.  “Take the other to the tower.”

Their captor, the boy beside them, let out a little giggle, and then pranced backwards and out of sight as a group of young teens in blue jackets and masks approached them.  They grabbed Ruri under the arms, and she was so scared and disoriented that she didn’t fight.

“Professor!” Selena screamed again, as another Obelisk Force soldier pushed her onto a stretcher, forcing her back.  She fought his hands, trying to sit back up. “Professor! Let her go! She doesn’t have anything to do with this! Please, I promise I’ll stay, I won’t disobey you anymore, just let her go!”

The Professor sank into his chair, closing his eyes.  He didn’t seem to even be listening. This...this imposing rock of a man was the person who had ordered the destruction of her home.  This was the demon who had destroyed everything. Ruri could hardly comprehend it. How was she in front of him?

Selena screamed again.

“I’ll kill myself, Professor!” she shrieked.  “If you don’t let Ruri go, I’ll kill myself!! Then you won’t have me for whatever your stupid plan is!”

“Sedate her if you have to,” the Professor said.  “Take them away.”

The Obelisk Force began to drag Ruri backwards.  She could hardly think to fight them.

But then she passed Selena.  Selena, still fighting the hands that held her, tears streaming down her face as she tried to sit up, as they shoved her back down against the stretcher and held her there, as they forced a needle towards her arm.

Her green eyes caught Ruri’s.  Terror, anger, rage — it all swirled in there.

“Ruri!” Selena screamed, reaching out for her as another hand gripped her arm and pinned it to the floor.  “ _Ruri!_ ”

Ruri came awake all at once.

“Selena,” she gasped.  “Selena! Selena!”

She threw herself against her captors’ hands, but it was to no avail.  She dug her heels in, screamed, struggled, even tried to bite. And still Selena got farther and farther away from her.  One of the Obelisk soldiers had his hand over her mouth, now, and her eyes were starting to blur and her head to loll as the needle hung out of her arm.

“Selena!” Ruri screamed, tears rolling down her cheeks.   _“SELENA!”_

“I promise...I won’t ever...stop trying...to escape,” Selena gasped just before she passed out.  “If you don’t...let...her...go.”

Her eyes closed.  And Ruri could only scream.

“Selena!” she shrieked.  “Selena! Selena!”

She was dragged behind a wall, and she couldn’t see her anymore.  She couldn’t see Selena anymore.

Ruri was all alone.  And so was Selena.

 


End file.
